Voting machine search worries local officials

Municipal officials in the Danbury area are getting antsy because the state is taking so long to choose what type of electronic voting machines to use in next November's election.

The state needs to change at least some - and perhaps all - of its voting machines to comply with a new federal law that goes into effect Jan. 1 called the Help America Vote Act. The machines must be available for the next federal election. Connecticut residents will elect five members of Congress and a senator in November.
But registrars of voters say they are not getting enough advance notice. They said towns are planning their budgets now, and registrars must estimate how much it will cost to train staff on the new machines.
In addition, the registrars are concerned with educating voters about the new technology.
"I think everyone is going to have a lot of concerns," said Danbury registrar

. "We're trying to get a budget for the city. We need to know how much training is involved. If we need to bring in our moderators and poll workers, who will pay for that? We have had no answers to any questions."
The state had voters test three types of machines in the fall. Doran said registrars believe the state is close to choosing the Danaher machine.
That machine displays a ballot on a computer monitor. The voter presses on the screen to select candidates. Then the voter presses a button on the side of the machine to get a printed ballot to check. The voter must press a button to accept the ballot, then another button to vote.
"I'm worried people are not going to remember to vote," Doran said.
Danbury has 45 lever voting machines, but Doran thinks the city will need twice as many electronic machines to replace them, since it takes longer to vote on the electronic machines.

Michael Kozik
, managing attorney for the Secretary of the State's election office, said the state is close to selecting a machine. But there are other questions.
Kozik said it's clear that the state must have one handicapped accessible electronic machine in every polling site in the state. That would mean 769 machines, he said.
But the state is still questioning whether the law requires Connecticut to replace all of its 3,300 lever machines. Connecticut Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal
has asked the
U.S. Justice Department

for an opinion but the state has not gotten an answer yet.
Kozik said the state received $33 million from the federal government to pay for the new voting machines.
"We hope to be able to fund at least the purchase and replacement of the machines," Kozik said. He said that towns may have to pay poll workers for training.
The Connecticut League of Women Voters has written to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz to voice its concerns. The group wrote that the fall tests did not reassure league members that any of the new electronic machines could be secure and accurate.
The league wants the state to lease, and not buy, new electronic machines. It also wants state officials to figure out how to hand out federal money so towns have enough cash to train officials and the general public on the machines.
Jean Rabinow
, a staff member at the
League of Women Voters of Connecticut
and a vice president of the Bridgeport chapter, said she is hopeful the state will get machines that are user friendly in time for the November elections.
However, as a poll worker and moderator for a decade, she can't imagine training people in time for the election. "I personally do not believe the machines will do anything but cause chaos at the elections because they are not intuitively obvious," she said. "I have grave concerns."